Since I installed Videora my DVP642 is just collecting dust. I used to do what some others in the thread say they do, burn .avi and other files to a CD/DVD and watch them on my DVP42... but Videora is literally one-click encoding to get it from MPEG-4 to tivo-compatible MPEG-2. And then I just walk over to my TiVo and start watching it later, when it's done encoding (on my PC it encodes in about half the playing time for a HDTV-rip mpeg-4).

TiVo can now play back all my converted torrent downloads... where is the marketing here, when even TiVo OWNERS seem to have no idea it can this?

Since I installed Videora my DVP642 is just collecting dust. TiVo can now play back all my converted torrent downloads... where is the marketing here, when even TiVo OWNERS seem to have no idea it can this?

I suppose one part of it is that some of us are DirecTV subscribers and use DirecTV DVR's.

Another part of it is that to place it on compatible TiVo's you must run through a conversion most of the time, and that conversion takes time. With the DVD player, one just burns the file that was downloaded onto a CD or DVD and plays.

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With the DVD player, one just burns the file that was downloaded onto a CD or DVD and plays.

Fair enough, I guess, if one is in a hurry. It takes about 20 minutes for me to convert a 43 minute show, but that's a good point. Same with DirecTV compatibility.

Personally, having the same control over the file as I would over a TiVO recording (pausing, switching to other recordings, instant replay) wins out easily though. Plus, not having to deal with discs, of course.

Wen getting a large torrent and it is broken up into many subfiles how does one bring them together as a single AVI or MPG?

Thanks

Those are usually broken up as RAR files, a compression scheme similar to ZIP, that also offers a way to break up the compressed file into smaller pieces. Install a program like winrar to be able to reassemble the pieces.

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Then convert the file (change the options in the program so it outputs the converted file to your TiVo Recordings folder). That's it.

Note that by default the output of the conversion is 4:3 aspect ratio (the default is used when doing the "One CLick Transcoding"). Since many torrents are in 16:9, you'll have to change that (the little dropdown on the right of the conversion screen) for those files (that would be 3-click encoding ). You can also change the default to be 16:9 so you won't have to change it for every file, and can use the one-click.

I don't. That's why I posted earlier in the thread about this. I had heard several months ago that TiVo was going to introduce something that allowed files to go back to the TiVo but hadn't heard anything else about it. I assumed it would be like most of TiVo's promised developments and not be available for quite some time. I don't keep up in the Coffee House like I used to, so if it's been introduced, I was unaware of it. Can you give me the quick overview of what I have to do to get it set up?

I don't. That's why I posted earlier in the thread about this. I had heard several months ago that TiVo was going to introduce something that allowed files to go back to the TiVo but hadn't heard anything else about it. I assumed it would be like most of TiVo's promised developments and not be available for quite some time. I don't keep up in the Coffee House like I used to, so if it's been introduced, I was unaware of it. Can you give me the quick overview of what I have to do to get it set up?

Thanks

Download the latest version of TiVo Desktop. You'll be asked where you want to keep your TiVo recordings. All you need to do is put a TiVo-compatible MPG2 file in that folder (use the conversion program in this thread to get it to the right format). Then on your Now Playing list, you'll see your computer's name and a listing of all the files in that folder. If you select it, you have the option of transfering it to TiVo. If you don't see the item immediately in Now Playing, go into Music, Photos, and More first then go back to Now Playing (I had to do this last night to get mine to show up).

Can you give me the quick overview of what I have to do to get it set up?

Essentially, all you need to do is install TiVo Desktop 2.2 on your PC, and set it up. You should then get a little computer icon iat the bottom of the "Now Playing" menu, where you can select the files (it will show .mpeg and .tivo files).

I generally just watch them on my computer. Occasionally I'll burn a CD or DVD and watch it on the 50" plasma. I have the Philips DVP642 and it really is a nice convenience to be able to just burn MPEG2/4/DivX files as is to a CD or DVD. I'd picked one up at BJ's for about $59, then picked up another one later just as a spare.

debtoine just pointed out this player to me today: Oppo OPDV971H 720p/1080i Upscaling DVD Player

It upconverts to 720p or 1080i, but more importantly also plays DivX and seems to have decent reviews. It's a bit more at $199, though.

My brother bought this Oppo player after he bought his 1080p Samsung and from what he experienced, it chokes on .avi files. YMMV

I, too, was looking for a divx solution after my old DVD player took a dump on me. Luckily, it was still under warranty (4-year service plan). I took it in and they gave me what I paid for it 3.5 years ago ($180) and I went with an LG (LGDVB418). It has all the HD hookups, 1080i upscaling, accepts memory cards, and does divx.

I highly recommend this player. It plays any .avi file I throw at it.

Thanks to Lee Espinoza for the link. I gotta check that out. I have a ton of TV on my PC that is in MPG format.

Essentially, all you need to do is install TiVo Desktop 2.2 on your PC, and set it up. You should then get a little computer icon iat the bottom of the "Now Playing" menu, where you can select the files (it will show .mpeg and .tivo files).

OK, I don't know why I didn't know about this before. This is pretty cool. Now I can watch the stuff that I download on the TiVo and it's way higher quality that way than if I just record it originally with the TiVo.

I recant my earlier statement about why anyone would want to transfer the shows this way. It's easy and it looks great. Thanks for the info, people.

OK, maybe I need to be treated like I am 4 years old. I followed dswallow's excellent instructions and downloaded shameless. When I launch WMP launches and plays the audio only. Apparently, I need a Codec? Should I find the codec or should I use an alternate player? Thanks for any assistance.

OK, maybe I need to be treated like I am 4 years old. I followed dswallow's excellent instructions and downloaded shameless. When I launch WMP launches and plays the audio only. Apparently, I need a Codec? Should I find the codec or should I use an alternate player? Thanks for any assistance.

There are two video codecs you should definitely install: DivX and XviD, both freely downloadable. You should be able to find what you need from http://www.divx.com/divx/ and www.xvid.org.

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OK, maybe I need to be treated like I am 4 years old. I followed dswallow's excellent instructions and downloaded shameless. When I launch WMP launches and plays the audio only. Apparently, I need a Codec? Should I find the codec or should I use an alternate player? Thanks for any assistance.

If you run the file on your computer, and the audio plays but the video doesn't, you probably are missing the right video codec (e.g. DIVX, XVID, Indeo).

If the video plays and the sound doesn't, you are missing an audio codec (usually AC3)

To check which codecs a video is using, open it in AVICodec:

avicodec (dot) duby (dot) info

A great alternate player is VLC. It has many codecs built in, plus will play a file before it is finished downloading.

I began with the philips 642, added a norcent dp-220 (even cheaper, same decoder chip) for another room, but the intermediate step of burning the .avis to DVD got too annoying. Plus HR HDTV AC3 episode rips (e.g. Lost) don't play on either unit without some kind of reencoding.

Now I've gone the xbox media center route and couldn't be happier. The torrents all play directly off of the share where azureus drops them, and with the xbox in 720p output, HR HDTV rips look wonderful.

I'm not sure I can say what we're doing with our one-DVD-at-a-time netflix subscription, other than to note that xbox media center loves to play .iso images of dvds.

That $199 networked dvd player seems like a pretty good idea if you don't want to deal with hacking an xbox, but I'm a lot happier with a solution that's getting continuous software updates. And xbmc plays nearly everything.

You said that in response to my:
"Most of what you find to download will be .avi files. Tivoserver running on your Mac or pc will make those .avi files available to your Tivo just as if they were native tivo files."

Maybe I phrased it badly. I'll try again.

Most of what you find to download will be .avi files. Tivoserver running on your mac or pc will make those .avi files available to your Tivo just as if they were native tivo files.

Of course it is always possible that a specific .avi file may be coded in a way not readable by Tivoserver, but I have not yet had that experience. The development team for Tivoserver seem committed to enlarge the scope of types of video files that can be served by the local computer to the Tivo, and I'm hopeful VOB files may be supported soon.

Once you have the video file locally, you can't beat the Videora Tivo Converter for the next step. Just point it at any media files you may have, and it'll transcode em, and if you like, drop them right in your local tivo video folder. They then show up accessablef by the tivo, which slurps them up and plays them.

They also have a bittorrent client (Videora) designed specifically to track and download television series, and then use their tivo converter for one step downloading from the internet - right into the tivo, but I've not tried it. It may be simpler for one just getting started.

(Personally, I download with Azureus, and watch on whatever computer is closest)

-Ken

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What if I want to burn the AVI file (or the resulting MPEG file from the Videora converter) to a regular DVD to play in a regular DVD player (not a DivX player)? I have a BT file that I want to burn to a regular DVD for my father in law. What do I need to do with that?

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What if I want to burn the AVI file (or the resulting MPEG file from the Videora converter) to a regular DVD to play in a regular DVD player (not a DivX player)? I have a BT file that I want to burn to a regular DVD for my father in law. What do I need to do with that?

OK, I've been able to transfer BT files to the TiVo for viewing. I now have a couple of questions:

First, as soon as I started doing this yesterday, my TiVo started acting up. It just spontaneously restarted about 5 times yesterday in the 12 hours after I downloaded Desktop 2.2 and transferred a file. It hasn't happened now since about 1 am so I'm hoping it's not an issue anymore, but could the installation of 2.2 and the transferring of files cause the TiVo to stop functioning properly?

Second, I used Videora to convert a couple of shows. One show that was in 16:9 I tried to convert as a 16:9 and it didn't work (showed multiple images on the TV). The second was a native 4:3 program and I converted it that way and it worked great. The third was a 16:9 program that I converted with the 4:3 setting and it looked horrible because it had stretched the picture vertically and made all the people tall and skinny. What is the proper Videora setting for converting a 16:9 program into a letterboxed 4:3 file so I can watch it on my 4:3 TV in the proper aspect ratio?

My turn to ask questions like a 5 year old. Unfortunately I'm one of those who can't put this on a TiVo, so I have to burn a DVD. I tested and none of my DVD players Play AVI files so I need to convert to burn a DVD. I downloaded AVI2DVD but get stuck when asked to choose an audio stream. there are no options in the scroll-down menu... it's blank. I made sure that there were no special characters in the file path name. I made sure to keep the path simple so I just dropped the file at C:\ with no subfolders and still have no luck.

This is my first attempt with bit torrent files. I managed to download the fila and am able to watch it on the computer. I'd really like to be able to watch this on the TV.

Click the "this one" link in beldar's post (a couple posts up). The fourth link down on that page is DivXtoDVD 0.5.0. I used that the other day and it worked great. I was able to burn a DVD using the resulting files and Nero, and it played fine on my father in law's relatively old DVD player.

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